Is there a schedule?

Not really. Some agencies release annual solicitations for Phase I proposals and allow multiple Phase I submissions throughout the year with rolling submission due dates. Some agencies only release one Phase I solicitation per year.

SBIR.gov has a tool to look at all of the currently open solicitations at https://www.sbir.gov/solicitations/open and this is a great start.

We like to start by looking at which agency (or agencies) may be a good fit for you and then check out that agency's SBIR program website for upcoming funding opportunities. Going to the agency-specific website is a great way to also learn about their research areas (or topics), how they run their SBIR programs, and access resources they've developed to help investigators be successful with their SBIR programs.

Have any agencies funded similar research?

You may be surprised to learn that more than one agency may be a fit for your research. But where to start? Let's look at which agencies may have funded similar or related research via their SBIR programs.

Go ahead, open https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/award/all in a new tab. This is the full list of all SBIR/STTR-funded projects (with a slight lag time). You can enter a simple keyword like "quantum" or "neuromodulation" or "coatings" to pull up all awards that have that term in their abstract. In the resulting list, you'll see which agency funded these projects, what year they were funded, the awarded companies, etc.

On the left sidebar of that page, you can also filter by specific agencies, by whether the awards were Phase I or Phase II, by SBIR or STTR, by year, and by state.

Now you have an idea of one or more agencies whose SBIR programs you want to learn more about. Many of the agencies have their own award search engines, too, like NIH RePORTER or NSF's award search. Yes, you can filter to just the SBIR or STTR awards on these tools. But give them a go and have fun!

Let's go to the source

The best source to find out about an agency's upcoming SBIR (or STTR) funding opportunities (solicitations) is that agency's SBIR program website.

How do you find that? Google "[insert agency name here] SBIR" and one of the first hits will be their main program page. For example, open a new tab and try "NSF SBIR" or "NASA SBIR" now.

From these home pages, the agency will provide directions on how to apply and links to either their current solicitation or links to past solicitations if they don't currently have an open solicitation.

Depending on the agency, some may have the solicitation documents on their site, some contracting agencies may direct you to a specific SAM.gov URL, and some granting agencies may direct you to a specific Grants.gov URL. A bit of free advice (OK, all of our advice is free): don't try to search directly on SAM.gov or Grants.gov first. A direct link to the contract or grant listing will be provided by the agency's funding announcement.